Hydrogen South Africa Public Awareness, Demonstration and Education Platform (HySA PADEP) is hosted at the South African Agency for Science and Technology Advancement (SAASTA) and funded by the Department of Science and Technology (DST).

HySA PADEP was created to market hydrogen technology locally and internationally.

The main aim of HySA PADEP is to create awareness, visibility and acceptance amongst the public, industries, entrepreneurs and key decision makers in South Africa about the challenges, benefits and safety of using hydrogen fuel cell technology in the alternative energy industry.

The Department of Science and Technology (DST) has a mandate to achieve mastery of technological change in South Africa’s economy and society. In the process of achieving the mandate, the DST identified Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies (HFCT) as a “frontier science and technology” platform that would allow proactive innovation and knowledge generation to benefit from South Africa’s natural resources.

Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology is a technology which uses both hydrogen and fuel cells to generate electrical energy. Hydrogen is an energy carrier which stores and delivers energy in a usable form.

Activities and projects

Role Modelling Campaign
Role modelling campaigns are a career profiling project, which exposes learners to role models with various qualifications in science, engineering and technology (SET).

Information & Dialogue Sessions
The Science Communication Unit drives various interventions targeted at the media and researchers. At these events media personnel are introduced to scientists or researchers and provided with the necessary support to enable them to report scientific content accurately to the public.

Workshops
Through these interactive workshops, the researchers’ media as well as communication skills are developed with more emphasis placed on communicating about fields that have been identified as research priority areas.

Facility Tours
The purpose of a facility tour is to raise awareness of the science taking place at key South African research institutions or facilities by reaching a diverse group of audiences.

School Debates
The Debates project seeks to present scientific information to the youth of South Africa in a manner that will stimulate them intellectually and encourage them to engage each other on science-related issues.